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POLICE QUELL NEAR-RIOT IN TEANECK

By michael o. allenHomepage, The RecordNo Comments

By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Sunday, February 2, 1992

The Record (New Jersey) | All Editions | NEWS | A08

About 100 Englewood youths armed with sticks, stones, and bottles converged on a Teaneck High School dance, but were met by an almost equal number of police officers who quelled a near-riot.

Breaking up sporadic fights at the flanks of crowds and keeping most of the youths apart on opposite sides of Teaneck Road, officers Friday night eventually herded the Englewood youths north into Englewood to put an end to the incident, said Lt. William Broughton, head of the Teaneck Police Department Youth Bureau.

Three juveniles from Hackensack, Englewood, and Teaneck taken into custody were released to the custody of parents or guardians about 1 a.m., he said. Andre Devon Perrin, 18, of West Hudson Avenue, Englewood, was arrested. He was charged with possession of a weapon for unlawful purpose, rioting, and resisting arrest, Broughton said.

Perrin, who had a heavy 18-inch fire hydrant wrench when he was arrested, was in the Bergen County Jail on Saturday on $7,500 bail, he added.

Broughton, who was injured when he was hit on the head by a piece of thrown metal, said the only other injuries were to Detective Dean Kazinci, who was hit on the shin with a bottle, and Sgt. Mark Tiernan, who suffered bruised ribs. Neither was taken to a hospital, he said.

Broughton said he did not know why the Englewood youths came to Teaneck, but said they may have been retaliating for a past incident or some perceived slight by Teaneck youths. Sgt. Robert Adomilli said there may have been a dance at Englewood’s Dwight Morrow High School.

“The type of behavior we saw last night is not going to be tolerated by the Teaneck Police Department or the residents of Teaneck,” Broughton said Saturday.

Also responding were about 75 to 100 police officers from the Dumont, Bergenfield, Englewood, Tenafly, Haworth, Palisades Park, Paramus, and Bergen County departments, he said.

Uniformed Teaneck officers went to the corner of Washington Place and Sunrise Terrace about 10:45 p.m., as the Teaneck dance wound down, on a report from residents that youths were fighting, Adomilli said. Officers saw a group of youths but did not see any fighting, he said.

The students at the dance, meanwhile, were told to stay at the school.

A few minutes later, police cars blocked off the Margaret Street bridge when they heard a report that a large group of youths were headed into the township from Englewood.

Police soon heard another report that another group of Englewood youths was coming from Forest Avenue.

“At that point, we knew they were coming to the high school,” Broughton said.

Despite discouragement from police, Adomilli said, a group of about 60 Teaneck youths formed and was ready to meet the Englewood youths.

“It’s a fortunate thing we were there, in the number we were there,” Adomilli said. “I’m telling you, somebody would have gotten hurt. . . . It was very bad scene. We got good support from the surrounding towns.”

Michele March, a member of the Concerned Citizens of Teaneck, was at the scene with her husband, Curtis, who was a chaperone at the dance, helping police calm the youths.

March expressed frustration at what appear to be continuing fights between rival youths in different local communities, especially between Teaneck, Englewood, and Hackensack youths.

“You know what I see? I see a lot of nice kids who just need somebody to point them in the right direction, to tell them that this is not what we are about as black people,” March said.

March commended the police for their professionalism, quick response, and the efficient manner in which they quelled the incident.

“There is a total misfocus here on racism; it’s a black-on-black thing,” she said. “This is a thing that the black community has to solve for itself. We have to reach out to our kids and tell them that we love them, but that we do not accept this kind of behavior; that it is not a way for them to enjoy their future, that they might end up dead or injured.”

Notes: Bergen news page

February 2, 1992

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ROBBERY SUSPECT AIMS GUN AT COP

By michael o. allenHomepage, The RecordNo Comments

By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Saturday, February 1, 1992

The Record (New Jersey) | Two Star B | NEWS | Page A03

A robbery suspect who had leveled a gun at a police officer dropped his weapon after a second officer, who came up behind the suspect, ordered him to freeze, police said.

The suspect, Thomas O’Kean, had just walked out of a Roy Rogers restaurant on Route 46. He allegedly had a bag of money in his left hand and a gun in his right when he was confronted by Officer Donald Anzalone, said Police Chief Donald Fleming.

Anzalone and Officer Craig Hartless had responded to a silent alarm at the restaurant about 11:25 p.m. Thursday, then waited for the suspect to come outside, because they did not want him to take the five restaurant employees hostage, Anzalone said.

O’Kean allegedly waited for the last customer to leave before accosting the manager, who tripped a silent alarm. After taking money from a safe, a cash-drop box, and a register, the suspect emerged from a side door into the parking lot, where Anzalone, who was behind cover, ordered him to freeze and drop his gun.

Anzalone said O’Kean instead began to slowly raise his weapon, which turned out to be a pellet gun, before Hartless also called on him to freeze.

“He had the gun leveled at me,” Anzalone said. “I don’t know why I didn’t shoot him. I think we both handled it pretty well. The outcome is what we like to see.”

O’Kean, who gave a Lodi address that police could not confirm, was charged with the armed robbery of about $1,800 from the restaurant. He was being held without bail in the Bergen County Jail.

February 1, 1992

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CRASH KILLS DRIVER OF COUNTY VAN

By michael o. allenHomepage, The RecordNo Comments

By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Saturday, February 1, 1992

The Record (New Jersey) | Two Star | NEWS | A05

Authorities are investigating the crash of a Bergen County special transportation van whose driver died after he apparently lost control and landed in a ravine.

Detective George Gibbs of the Bergen County Police Department said eyewitnesses reported the van was headed south on Polifly Road about 11 a.m. Thursday when it crossed into the northbound lane, drove through the Exxon gas station on the Hackensack-Hasbrouck Heights border, then landed in a ravine behind the station.

The witnesses said the driver was not visible when the vehicle went out of control.

The driver, Charles Strunck, 49, of Wood-Ridge, was taken to Hackensack Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead at 11:22 a.m., Gibbs said.

“Right now, we are waiting for the autopsy report and mechanical inspection of the van. A preliminary inspection indicated everything was OK on the van,” Gibbs said.

Margaret Cook, director of special transportation for Bergen County, said Strunck was on his way to pick up an elderly woman for a doctor’s appointment when the accident occurred. He had just dropped off about 10 passengers at a senior citizens center in Hackensack.

“It will be a tremendous loss to us,” said Cook, who described Strunck as a compassionate and outgoing worker.

February 1, 1992

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JAIL STILL DEFICIENT, EXPERT TESTIFIES

By michael o. allenHomepage, The RecordNo Comments

By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Thursday, January 30, 1992

The Record (New Jersey) | 5 Star | NEWS | Page: B01

Conditions that led Bergen County Jail inmates to file a class-action suit against the county and state remain largely unchanged since a sanitary expert last inspected the jail more than a year ago, the expert testified Wednesday in Newark.

Ward Duel, who was hired by the state Department of the Public Advocate after it had filed the suit on behalf of the inmates, said that upon reinspection Wednesday he found some improvements in health and food services. Duel said other jail facilities and programs had deteriorated, however.

The suit, filed in 1988, charges that overcrowding in the jail and its annex exacerbates violations of inmates constitutional rights. Of 984 inmates currently in the jail which has a rated capacity of 423 inmates 379 are state-sentenced prisoners.

Duel, an Illinois consultant who has seen prison conditions in 33 states, inspected the jail and testified extensively in 1990 on what he saw there.

Wednesday morning he reinspected the jail to look for improvements; during a resumed hearing on the suit, he said that he did not find many.

Inmates still contend with filthy walls, mouse droppings, sewage dripping from overhead pipes in the kitchen, unsafe electrical wires, leaky fixtures, and toilets that back up, he testified.

For instance, damage done to the annex during a June 1990 riot has not been repaired, Duel said. In that riot, inmates ripped out urinals and sinks and smashed toilets and windows. Some dormitory and cell areas in the annex have worsened, he added. In one area, he said, he was unable to turn on 18 of 36 lights.

“I think one of the conditions that contributed to the lack of good housekeeping is that the building is so dark,” he said. “You need good lighting in order to have good housecleaning.

“My overall evaluation of the annex has not changed. I was disappointed to see the new pods deteriorating.”

One of the areas Duel said had improved, food services, was the focus of a Jan. 11 protest in which an inmate was bitten by a guard’s dog when corrections officers tried to restore order. Inmates involved in that protest are scheduled to testify in the hearing next week.

Neither Deputy Bergen County Counsel Murshell Johnson nor Deputy Attorney General Catherine M. Brown would comment on Duel’s testimony Wednesday. The hearings are scheduled to continue today and are expected to last at least through February.

Jerrold B. Binney, chief of staff to Bergen County Executive William “Pat” Schuber, said Tuesday that the county has set up a jail advisory committee that monitors the sanitary and safety conditions cited and is developing a master plan to develop long-term solutions to problems in the jail.

Talks to settle the suit out of court broke down late last year. The hearings are being conducted by James R. Zazzali, a special master appointed by U.S. District Judge Harold A. Ackerman in September 1989 to make recommendations based on the hearings.

January 30, 1992

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VICTORY FOR JAIL COULD BE A LOSS; Hearings Resume on Overcrowding

By michael o. allenHomepage, The RecordNo Comments

By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Wednesday, January 29, 1992

The Record (New Jersey) | 5 Star | NEWS | Page B01

In an ironic twist to a class-action suit seeking to reduce overcrowding at the Bergen County Jail, a high-ranking county official says the county could wind up a loser if it wins the case.

Jerrold B. Binney, chief of staff to county Executive William “Pat” Schuber, said Tuesday that the state might walk away from the jail’s problems, if the recommendation of special master James R. Zazzali goes against the Department of the Public Advocate. It filed the federal suit in behalf of jail inmates in 1988.

The state and county are defendants in the case. Hearings on the suit were scheduled to resume today, after negotiations on an out-of-court settlement reached an impasse late last year.

Of 984 inmates in the jail which has a rated capacity of 423 379 are state prisoners, said a spokeswoman for Bergen County Sheriff Jack Terhune.

Binney, who has been designated by Schuber to speak for the county on the issue, said that the county has maintained all along that the state is to blame for the overcrowding and a host of other problems at the jail.

If the state and county win, he added, the state would have no incentive to decrease the number of state prisoners in the jail, or to increase its per-diem subsidy for state prisoners.

Binney says the county may sue the state to get it to address the county’s concerns.

“We’ve already done that in one instance, on the per-diem issue,” he said. “We’ve joined the Gloucester County suit on the per-diem cost because, right now, it is draining our treasury.

“We get $45 a day from the state,” he went on. “That’s what we’ve been getting for about 12 years, and everybody knows the costs have been going up. We feel that at a minimum at a minimum it’s costing us $65 a day to house those state prisoners, and that’s not even including some capital costs.”

The Bergen County freeholders are to consider the per-diem issue at their next meeting, deciding how much to ask of the court in the Gloucester case.

Deputy Attorney General Patricia Leuzzi, representing the state Corrections Department in the suit, said she had not been notified that Bergen County joined the Gloucester suit.

Leuzzi also said she was reluctant to discuss the issues discussed during settlement talks, but that the state does not dispute that the per-diem rate needs to increase. The state Legislature is responsible for such an increase, she said.

“The budget is limited,” she said. “The governor and the Legislature are making difficult decisions on what can be funded. Things are being cut back. There are complaints from every constituent.”

Deputy Public Advocate Audrey Bomse, who is handling the class-action suit, said the state deliberately overloads the county jails in order to avoid having its prisons declared unconstitutional.

Bomse said that overcrowding exacerbates the violation of inmates constitutional rights, and that an expert for the public advocate would testify today that, with the exception of health care, “almost next to nothing has been done to ameliorate” problems at the jail.

Among the problem areas cited were lack of exercise, poor lighting, improper sanitation, inadequate protection of inmates from other inmates, and a rising level of violence between inmates and corrections officers.

Corrections Department spokesman James Stabile said that overcrowding results from state prisons taking in more inmates than they let out. In 1991, for instance, 11,559 inmates came into state prisons and 8,216 were paroled, leaving a monthly average surplus of 279 inmates.

New Jersey is one of only five states in the nation not under a court order to drastically reduce its prison population, said Betsy Bernat, a spokeswoman for the National Prison Project of the American Civil Liberties Union. The project seeks to reduce prison populations.

Bernat said the reasons vary among the five states. Vermont, Montana, and North Dakota have no prison overcrowding largely because they are sparsely populated states, and Minnesota doesn’t because it imprisons only the most dangerous criminals.

She agreed with Bomse that New Jersey, which operates at about 135 percent of its prison capacity, was able to stave off a court order by “backing up its prisoners into the county jail system.”

January 29, 1992

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HEARING-IMPAIRED CAN CONTACT POLICE

By michael o. allenHomepage, The RecordNo Comments

By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Sunday, January 26, 1992

The Record (New Jersey) | All Editions | NEWS | Page A03

Just in time to comply with a federal law that takes effect today, borough police on Friday installed a device that will enable people with speech and hearing impairments to contact police headquarters.

“This is long overdue,” Detective Michael Burns said Saturday. “It opens a whole new world of communication for people.”

The legislation, called the Americans With Disabilities Act, was signed into law in July 1990. Under one of its provisions, police must be equipped with a Telecommunication Device for the Deaf, or TDD.

New Milford is one of more than a dozen Bergen County police departments that either recently purchased such a device or, like Allendale, have been using one for a number of years. But spokesmen for more than 40 other Bergen departments contacted Saturday said they still lack the equipment.

Most models of the machine are about the size of a small console telephone, with a typewriter keyboard and a display screen.

To contact police, users need a matching device at home. They type their message and it is carried through phone lines to police headquarters, where it is displayed on a screen and copied on a printer. The home units also can receive messages.

Lee Brody, a pioneer in the development of the TDD and now a vendor of the devices, said about 6,000 families across the state have one in their homes, most of them in Bergen and Middlesex counties. However, many people with impairments do not have the devices, he said.

Burns said he first became aware of the law’s requirement in October, when a company wrote him a letter trying to sell the department a TDD. After researching the law with the federal Justice Department, he solicited prices and found they ranged from $300 to $4,000. Burns said he opted for one that cost $625.

“It’s a state-of-the-art unit which allows us to handle any type of call,” he said.

The law mandating the equipment is a far-reaching measure requiring that any place serving the public be made accessible to the disabled.

January 26, 1992

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INMATE CLAIMS INJURY BY GUARD DOG; Attack in food protest charged

By michael o. allenHomepage, The RecordNo Comments

By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Saturday, January 25, 1992

The Record (New Jersey) | One Star | NEWS | Page A04

A Bergen County Jail prisoner claims he was injured when he was subdued by a police dog during an inmate protest over food.

Another inmate said the prisoner was bitten by the officer’s dog, but Sheriff Jack Terhune would say only that he assumed the inmate was bitten, because he needed medical attention.

Inmate Gary Jones, 32, said in a call to The Record that he saw a guard dog bite Gregory Cannell on Jan. 11 during a melee that ensued when several inmates dumped their food trays in protest over the portions they receive at mealtime.

Terhune said Thursday that Cannell received medical attention after he was taken into custody with the assistance of the guard dog. Cannell, 26, of Union City, was then returned to an isolation cell because he and Howard Tucker, 19, of Newark, face a charge of assault on a law enforcement officer in the disturbance, Terhune said.

Cannell was one of several inmates who tried to push past a corrections officer into a hallway after about 10 inmates had dumped their trays, Terhune said. Several officers responded to the correction officer’s call for assistance, he added, declining to say whether anyone else was hurt.

Jones was one of five inmates who called The Record around midday on Jan. 11, before the disturbance later that afternoon, to say they were on a hunger strike in protest of their meal portions, and of general conditions. Jones reported the incident to The Record several days later.

The state Department of the Public Advocate, which is representing the jail inmates in a suit to reduce overcrowding at the jail, is looking into the incident and may have the inmates involved testify at a hearing next week.

Assistant Deputy Public Advocate Audrey Bomse said she was aware of the incident but had not received a report from either side. The charges of assault filed against the two inmates were not surprising, Bomse said.

“I’m not going to prejudge this. Sometimes that is the case, but sometimes it is also used as justification for the use of excessive force upon inmates,” Bomse said.

Keywords: BERGEN COUNTY; PRISON; ANIMAL; ASSAULT

Notes: Cut in late editions.

January 25, 1992

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ESCAPED KILLER CHARGED IN HOLDUPS; Pair of Businesses were Robbed

By michael o. allenHomepage, The RecordNo Comments

Byline: By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Friday, January 24, 1992

The Record (New Jersey) | 5 Star | NEWS | Page B01

A convicted killer who escaped from a Connecticut prison and was recaptured in Paramus over the weekend was charged Thursday with two armed robberies in Rutherford and Montvale, authorities said.

Police linked Frank Vandever to the Jan. 7 robberies of a Rutherford jewelry store and a Montvale 7 Eleven after Vandever was captured at Garden State Plaza on Saturday, Bergen County Prosecutor John J. Fahy said.

Ronald Rutan, who also escaped from the Connecticut prison and was recaptured last week, was also charged Thursday in the holdups, Fahy said.

Vandever and Rutan are also suspects in the robbery of a 7 Eleven in Waldwick on Jan. 9, the prosecutor said.

Connecticut authorities on Thursday charged Vandever, 37, and Rutan, 34, with breaking out of the Somers Correctional Center on New Year’s Eve, and with kidnapping a couple and stealing their truck at knifepoint the day after the escape.

The two inmates broke out of prison by cutting through the bars of a window near the kitchen and then through two perimeter fences, authorities said. A fence alarm failed to sound.

Vandever, a former stockbroker serving a 40-year term for murdering a client, and Rutan, a convicted burglar, then led authorities in Connecticut, New York, and New Jersey on a manhunt. Rutan was captured in Spring Valley, N.Y., on Jan. 15.

Rutherford Police Chief Edward P. Caughey said that at about 5 p.m. on Jan. 6 Rutan went alone into Crosby Jewelers at 50 Park Ave. and asked a clerk if he could look at diamonds because he was shopping for an engagement ring.

Rutan returned with Vandever about the same time the next day. Vandever held a knife on the store clerk and Rutan brandished a gun that was later determined to be a toy, Caughey said.

Despite a warning from Rutan when he announced the robbery, however, the store manager pressed a silent alarm.

“When he pulled the alarm, they both turned around and fled,” Caughey said.

Neither victim was injured, and nothing was taken from the store.

About 11:46 p.m. the same night, Rutan held a 10-inch knife to the abdomen of a 7 Eleven clerk in Montvale, said borough Police Chief Joseph Marigliani. After Rutan left with about $300, Vandever, who allegedly was in the store pretending to be a customer, paid for a newspaper and also left.

The clerk then called police.

Fahy said he intended to prosecute the case after the two men are dealt with by Connecticut authorities.

January 24, 1992

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NEW RESTAURANT GUTTED BY EARLY MORNING BLAZE

By michael o. allenHomepage, The RecordNo Comments

By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Thursday, January 23, 1992

The Record (New Jersey) | 1 Star | NEWS | Page B01

Celestino’s, the Edgewater restaurant that opened 10 months ago at the site of the old Barge Inn, was destroyed by a pre-dawn fire Wednesday, authorities said.

A married couple who woke up to smoke and flames were routed from their second-floor apartment, but no one was injured, said Lt. Louis Gotthold of the Edgewater Fire Department.

The first firefighters who arrived at the scene, shortly after the first alarm sounded at about 1:20 a.m., saw flames shooting out of the windows in the three-story, wood-frame structure at 1020 River Road, Gotthold said. Firefighters worked hard to keep it from spreading to surrounding buildings, he said.

“It burned out of control for two hours, at least,” he said.

Gotthold said the Bergen County arson squad is investigating the blaze to determine its cause.

The fire was reported by a security guard from a high-rise across the street from the Italian restaurant, Gotthold said. About 60 firefighters from Edgewater, Fairview, Cliffside Park, and Fort Lee fought the blaze, he added.

Jack Warren, a former Edgewater Planning Board chairman and a manager of the Barge Inn for about six months, said the building was so old that it probably would not have taken much to ignite it.

In numerous incarnations, the inn had a reputation as a rough-and-tumble saloon that often caused headaches for borough officials. It was the last of the once-numerous saloons on the town’s 2 1/2-mile waterfront.

Celestino’s, as conceived by Celestino and Mario Genciarelli of Paterson, aimed to be a high-class restaurant. Warren said the restaurant appeared to live up to the hopes its owners and borough officials had for it.

“I haven’t had a whole lot of contact with the establishment since the bar closed, other than to eat there occasionally,” Warren said. “They changed the decor somewhat. They seemed to be doing fairly well.

“The food was good and the atmosphere was really nice. The management seemed to be doing a good job, and it was a pleasant place. ”

The Genciarellis could not be reached for comment.

Developer Lennard Schwartz, who owned the building, envisioned an artists colony in the space above the restaurant, and 10 studios were created. A rear second-floor apartment was occupied by the only known residential tenants of the building. The tenants were staying with friends Wednesday, officials said.

The damage was so severe that the two top floors were being torn down Wednesday, Gotthold said.

Caption: PHOTO – AL PAGLIONE / THE RECORD – A crew removing debris after the Wednesday fire that destroyed Celestino’s on River Road in Edgewater. No one was hurt in the blaze.

January 23, 1992

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VICTIM IDS ROBBERY SUSPECTS

By michael o. allenHomepage, The RecordNo Comments

By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Monday, January 20, 1992

The Record (New Jersey) | All Editions | NEWS | Page C18

A 31-year-old Cliffside Park woman who was held up at gunpoint has identified two Newark men in a police photo lineup as the robbers, police said.

Township police charged Kenneth Snead, 24, with armed robbery and unlawful possession of a weapon on Friday, and are looking for Melvin Crooks, 26, on the same charges, said Lt. Timothy Kelly, township police spokesman.

An employee of the McDonald’s restaurant at 2126 Tonnelle Ave., which was robbed last Monday night, also identified Snead as the gunman who, with another man, came to the drive-up window and demanded money, Kelly said.

The Cliffside Park woman was walking on Eighth Street on Wednesday when she was chased by the robbers, struck on the back of the head, and knocked to the ground before they drove away with her pocketbook.

The woman wrote down the license plate number of the assailants car. Snead and Crooks were later arrested by Newark police. The car, which had been stolen earlier Wednesday, was recovered with the woman’s purse and a cash till from the Roy Rogers restaurant at 1440 Tonnelle Ave. The restaurant was held up about 15 minutes after the woman was attacked, police said.

Newark police had Snead, who they were holding on an outstanding warrant, in custody when North Bergen police came calling later Thursday, Kelly said. Newark police had released Crooks on bail.

January 20, 1992

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